3. Representative photographs of the property: This report
contains representative photographs of the property.

4. A map depicting the location of the property: This report
contains a map which depicts the location of the property.

Click on the map to browse

5. Current Deed Book reference to the property: The most recent
deed to this property is listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 1287 at page
364. The current tax parcel number of this property is 080-092-02.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains
a brief historical sketch of the property by Dr. William H. Huffman, Ph.D.

7. A brief architectural sketch of the property: This report
contains a brief architectural description of the property by Professor Mary
Alice Dixon Hinson.

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the
criteria set forth in N.C.G.S. 160A-399.4:

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture and/or
importance: The Historic Properties Commission judges that the
property known as the F. O. Hawley, Jr., House does possess special
significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its
judgment on the following considerations: (1) the F. O. Hawley, Jr., House
is one of the finest local examples of the Neo-Classical Revival style;
(2) the F. O. Hawley, Jr., House is the only surviving element of the
grand residential streetscape which once characterized the neighborhood;
and (3) the initial owner, Mr. F. O. Hawley, Jr., was a prominent leader
of the local business community.

b. Integrity of design. setting, workmanship, materials, feeling
and/or association: The commission judges that the attached
architectural description by Mary Alice Dixon Hinson demonstrates that the
property known as the F. O. Hawley, Jr., House meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that
designation would allow the owner to apply annually for an automatic
deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the
property which becomes "historic property." The current Ad Valorem tax
appraisal of the entire .520 acre tract is $67,930.00. The Ad Valorem tax
appraisal on the improvements if $43,570.00. The total Ad Valorem tax
appraisal is $111,500.00. The property is currently zoned B-2.

The
Neoclassical Revival style house at 923 Elizabeth Avenue in Charlotte,
which is now known as the Edmor Motor Inn, was built in 1906 or 1907 by
Hector Theodore McKinnon (1845-1915) for his daughter, Elizabeth McKinnon
Hawley (1881-1918).1 Mr. McKinnon was a wealthy cotton merchant
and owner of real estate, including the McKinnon Building at the northwest
corner of N. Tryon and Fifth Streets.2 In his will, H. T.
McKinnon left the McKinnon building to the Independence Trust Company and
other rents and property to two orphanages in Banner Elk, N.C. in addition
to certain bequests to his daughter and son-in-law.3 Elizabeth
Hawley, McKinnon's only child, contested the will on the grounds of her
father's mental incompetence at the time of its devising (six months prior
to his death) and undue influence on the part of the Independence Trust. In
a well-reported trial from September 12 to 15, 1916, which included many
witnesses for both sides, Mrs. Hawley succeeded in breaking the will and
thus received all of her father's estate.4 At the time,
McKinnon's estate was valued between $100,000 and $125,000, and the house on
Elizabeth Avenue was valued at $25,000.5

Elizabeth McKinnon Hawley was married to Francis Oscar Hawley, Jr.
(1881-1939) on June 27, 1905.6 Her husband was the son of Dr. F.
O. Hawley (1846-1915), who was practicing medicine in Polkton, N.C. when F.
O. Hawley, Jr. was born. In 1894, the Hawleys moved to Charlotte, where Dr.
Hawley lobbied, through written articles, for the establishment of the
office of city physician. When the office was set up several years later,
Dr. Hawley became assistant city physician, and in 1898, when his boss went
off to the Spanish-American War, became the second city physician, a post he
held until shortly before his death in 1915.7 Two months after
his marriage to Elizabeth McKinnon, F. O. Hawley, Jr., who had graduated
from the Maryland College of Pharmacy and traveled for the Eli Lily Co.,
bought out (with T. Croft Woodruff) the Brannon Drug Co. on N. Tryon Street.8
Hawley and Woodruff later became Hawley's Pharmacy, which was located in a
ground floor corner of the McKinnon Building.9 About the same
time as the establishment of the younger Hawley's drug store, perhaps with
his father-in-law's backing, H. T. McKinnon also bought the lot on Elizabeth
Avenue to build a house on for his daughter.10 Since the deaths
of H. T. McKinnon and Dr. F. O. Hawley, Sr. in 1915 made the younger Hawleys
quite wealthy, the junior Mr. Hawley retired from active involvement in the
drug store, and he and his wife moved from their Elizabeth Avenue home to a
suburban one on the Derita Road (now about 24th and Graham Streets), in
1917.11 F. O. Hawley, Jr. was then president of Hawley
Laboratories, also located at the Derita Road site, and looked after his and
his wife's real estate holdings.12

A year later, in 1918, Elizabeth Hawley was stricken with the deadly flu
which raged after World War I, and died within a week at the age of
thirty-seven, leaving her husband as her sole heir.13 Upon F. O.
Hawley, Jr.'s death in 1939, the Elizabeth avenue house, which had been
rented to various families since 1917, and was later called "The Clary,"
offering furnished rooms, was administered by the executors of Hawley's
large estate.14 They sold the house to the Charlotte Elks Lodge
392 in 1941, which continued its use as a rooming house until they sold it
three years later to Dr. Edgar Dorsett Moore (1897-1976) and his wife,
Geraldine McPheeters Moore.15 Dr. Moore was a dentist, and he
used the house as his residence while he built the presently existing
dentist offices on Elizabeth Avenue in front of the house.16 In
1964, Dr. Moore converted the house to the Edmor Motor Inn, and moved his
residence to Sunset Drive.17 Dr. Moore, who died at his home at
1117 Queens Road in 1976 at the age of 79, was born in Globe, N.C., and came
to Charlotte in 1931. He devoted much of his time to religious projects; he
produced the "Temple of the Air" Bible radio class in Charlotte, and was
active in the Gideons International and other religious and professional
organizations.18 The present owner of the Hawley house, Geraldine
McPheeters Moore, continues to operate the site as the Edmor Motor Inn with
the dental offices at the street level, but the house appears likely to be
subject to demolition by a subsequent owner. Its location, association with
the turn-of-the-century history of Charlotte and architecture certainly
argue for its preservation if at all possible.

The Hawley House is a distinguished example of Charlotte's domestic
Neoclassicism. The house stands two-and-a-half stories high on a sharply
elevated site overlooking Elizabeth Avenue not far from the center of the
city. The house carries a
hipped roof covered by slate shingles. A monumental frontispiece
projects from the facade. The main body of the house, five bays wide and
three deep, is built of cream-colored brick laid in
running bond. The brick provides a neutral background for the rich
program of applied wooden and stone
Neoclassical trim: frontispiece, dentil cornice, and window sills are
painted white with dark accents added by masonry window lintels. The main
(south) facade is dramatized by a Neoclassical frontispiece projecting from
the three center bays of the elevation. The frontispiece consists of two
symmetrical, interlocking porticoes: a colossal
Corinthian portico enclosing a smaller, two-tiered
Ionic portico.

The former consists of four two-story Corinthian columns with two
complementary pilasters. These support a boldly projecting pedimented gable.
Cream-colored stucco gives the gable face an impasto finish. A quadripartite
oculus pierces the gable face; the occults is framed by a round wooden
surround bearing four raised
keystones. A dentil cornice crisply outlines the pediment. The
two-tiered entrance porch stands beneath the colossal portico. Four unfluted
Ionic columns and two unfluted Ionic pilasters frame the central entrance
and carry a second-story balcony. While the colossal Corinthian portico is
clearly visible from the street, the smaller, two-tiered Ionic portico is
most apparent only as the central entrance is approached. The monumental
scale of the former responds to the distance of the street while the smaller
size and formal division of the latter establishes human scale and reflects
the internal layering of stories.

The main entrance, approached through the unfluted Ionic portico, is a
neo-Palladian unit framed by a pair of fluted Ionic pilasters. A single-leaf
door is punctuated by a large oval of beveled plate glass. A rectangular
transom containing leaded glass surmounts the door. Within the transom a
series of repeating geometric shapes form a semi-circular
fanlight. Single-light sidelights flank the door. Each
sidelight is outlined by flat-paneled pilasters; the pilasters carry
acanthus modillions supporting molded entablatures. Above the entrance is
the second-story balcony. The balcony in enclosed by a balustrade with a
molded handrail, turned balusters, and four flat-paneled plinths. The two
outer plinths are highlighted by bas-relief fleurs-de-lis. The balcony is
overlooked by a sash window set beneath an eight-light transom with a pair
of twelve-light sidelights.

Fenestration throughout the main body of the house is fairly consistent.
Six-over-one and one-over-one
sash (some with relatively new glass) are underlined by molded sills and
decorative brick aprons. Stone jack arches with double raised keystones
crown most of the windows except those within the three bays of the
frontispiece. Along the east elevation a second-story round arched window
overlooks the driveway. Three rows of headers with stone endblocks and
double raised keystone surround this window A shed dormer with dentil
cornice pierces the tripped roof along the rear elevation. The east and west
elevation of the roof are pierced by large louvered vents with molded hoods
and fillet-trimmed ears. Two heavily corbeled brick chimney caps rise at the
ridge of the roof. These are enclosed by a rectangular parapet whose turned
balusters echo those of the second-story balcony. A small porte cochere
protects the driveway entrance along the east elevation. It is balanced by a
demihexagonal ground-story bay on the west elevation. Small weatherboarded
sheds are attached to the main body of the house along both side elevations.
The rear of the house, containing the service wing, is highly asymmetrical.
The ground story consists of three shallowly stepped blocks beneath a
stepped, set back second story. The second story is faced with cream-colored
stucco. A brick chimney pierces the kitchen roof. A single leaf rear
entrance is sheltered by a small gable sheathed with ornamental pressed tin.

The focal point of the interior is the large stair hall into which the
central entrance opens. The rectangular stair hall functions as both a
circulation space and as a living hall. It contains exposed wooden ceiling
beams with flat-paneled soffits. A flat-paneled
wainscot runs around the room beneath a molded chairrail. The wainscot
continues along the wall of a three-run staircase. The stair begins along
the southern wall in the southeast corner of the room and then rises
front-to-back along the eastern wall. The rectangular wainscot panels become
ascending parallelograms as the
stair rises. The
newel posts are splayed and terminate in dentil caps above geometric
cutouts. Slender rectangular insection
balusters rise from the closed string.

Beneath the string is a flat-paneled inglenook with a built-in bench and
several storage compartments. This alcove is at a right angle to the
fireplace which dominates the northern wall of the stair hall. The fireplace
has a red tile surround and a Neoclassical mantel. The mantel is built of
two fluted Ionic columns supporting ovolo-molded endblocks and a blank
frieze. An entablature with four horizontal flat panels and a second set of
endblocks runs above the frieze. Most of the extant original doors are
single-leaves. Each has five horizontal flat panels and a one-light
rectangular transom. A single-run service staircase runs back-to-front along
the western wall of the rear service wing. In the conversion from
single-family dwelling to quasi-residential motel minor alterations and
additions were made to the house. None appear to have had an overly
significant impact on either the structural integrity of the building or the
aesthetic merit of the street facade. The house and its handsome grounds,
including a side garden with picturesque paths and a front lawn with massive
roughcast
ashlar retaining walls, form a visual oasis in the midst of heavy
vehicular traffic. The Hawley House is a graphic reminder of Charlotte's
past residential patterns. The Neoclassical frontispiece is an example of
the use of multiple architectural scales in an urban residence.